Kiva realized she was close enough to the open circuit that Chat heard that last comment. She looked at the screen to see him with a concerned expression on his face. She rolled her eyes and leaned in again. “I’m not going to kill you, you miserable shitfuck. Unless you stop talking. Or croaking. Or whatever the fuck it is you’re doing at the moment. Just keep doing it.” Chat nodded. Kiva turned to Pinton. “Turn that thing off for a second.”

Pinton slapped closed the communication circuit. “What is it?”

“Something’s not right about this,” Kiva said.

“None of it is right,” Pinton said. “This is all highly fucked up, ma’am.”

“No, I mean—” Kiva pointed at Chat, who was waiting, looking up at the camera. “He wants to bring Claremont back, and he’s willing to damage the ship to do it. Ghreni is willing to deal with fucking pirates to bring him back.”

“You said that Lord Ghreni tried holding him hostage to get those imperial funds released. Maybe he just really needs them.”

“Yeah, okay, but shithole here,” Kiva motioned again toward Chat, “tried to kill him once he realized he was trapped and found out. If he couldn’t bring him back, he needed to kill him. But if he killed him, then he couldn’t use him as a fucking hostage, now, could he? So what was the fucking point? Why did Ghreni go through all this effort? What’s the reason?”

“You got me,” Pinton said.

“Yeah. Open that circuit.” Pinton turned it back on. “Important question, Chat. If I don’t believe you, your lungs are coming out through your nose. You got it?”

Chat nodded.

“Why does your boss want Marce Claremont so fucking bad?”

“Don’t know,” Chat croaked.

“Your fucking lungs, Chat.”

“I. Don’t. Know,” Chat said again, so emphatically the last word came out as a wheeze. “I thought ransom. But makes no sense.”

“Because you were told to kill him if you couldn’t bring him back alive.”

Chat nodded.

“Well, can’t you fucking guess?” Kiva asked. “You work directly with Ghreni. You have to have heard something. You have to be able to speculate.”

Chat shook his head. “Doesn’t talk. Unless involved, nothing.”

“You’re involved, Chat.”

“To do. Not for why.”

Kiva nodded to Pinton again, and he closed the circuit. “Well?” she asked him.

“I think he’s telling the truth.”

“I know the fucker is telling the truth,” Kiva said. “I want to know what you think we do now.”

“Well, we don’t space him,” Pinton pointed at Chat. “He’s been cooperative.”

“Hard vacuum will do that.”

“So he’s not a problem anymore. But we still have the pirates on their way. And if Lord Ghreni was willing to go this far to get Claremont back, then you have to figure he has a plan for if Chat here failed.”